The Avallon Chronicles (BOOK I)

13 | Labyrinth of Doom

As soon as the cue was given, the participants dashed toward the passageways with their gems and weapons on their sides.

Cithara's spirits lifted as she marched towards the mysterious passageways of the maze.

As she continued to find her way toward the Victory Gem, arrows were seen rallying from side to side that were accompanied by voices of people uttering spells and sounds of screams.

"Easy, Cithara," she whispered to herself, trying to bring her mind calm despite what she was hearing.

The path was thin, and the way was dark. All that she could see were tall, thick, green bushes blackened by the shadows of the night with their leaves swaying around as if it was breathing and alive.

Without warning, the bushy wall in front of her moved, creating a passageway for her. She was stuck between two passageways - with the path she had been shut down by the enigmatic bushes. There was an ominous thing that rose above the ground waiting to be discovered.

In the end, after choosing between the new passageway that appeared and the passageway leading towards the left which had been there for the time she arrived, she finally chose to walk straight toward the main path in front of her.

On her way, one of the participants caught her attention. Her eyes widened when she caught him running towards her.

Thinking quickly, she raised her small bow, aiming toward the man. As soon as she was about to shoot an arrow that she pulled from her quiver, the man waved both his hands towards her, crossing them in the air.

"Hey! Hey! Hey!" the man shouted, slowly decreasing his speed.

Cithara paused, dazed by what she had just heard. "Please don't hurt me!" the man added.

"But..." Cithara spoke, taken aback by what the man had uttered. "That is what I'm going to tell you, actually."

Looking from head-to-toe, the absence of the man's gems and his weapon raised questions inside her curious young mind.

"There is a monster... There is a monster inside there!" the man warned, his eyes filled with horror. "I saw it with my own eyes. I am lucky that I escaped from its deadly grasp."

His clothes were ripped, and there were scratches all over his body. The man might be telling the truth, but deep inside of her laid a tiny voice that whispered there might be something wrong.

Before the game even started, she had already studied the background and the rules of the game. Fighting each other is commonly done by the participants in order for them to win successfully. The game is perilous, especially magic, which will not work inside the maze.

"I'm continuing to search for the gem in order for us to get out of here immediately," the man spoke.

At the blink of an eye, the man vanished into thin air, leaving a cold path with no traces of where he went.

"Alright, that's... strange," she whispered, continuing her journey towards victory.

The wind was restless, cold, and strong. All of a sudden, the night was filled with mystical silence.

"I still have my three gems, but," she whispered to herself, "let's just hope it won't run out because this bow will be useless when that happened."

The dark covered her way along with the mist of the night with her three gems serving as her only light and, for her situation, only hope.